'Researching in the darkness and silence - How blind and deaf-blind genealogists use their computers'

On Monday 2 August 2010, we at Oxfordshire FHS www.ofhs.org.uk have one of
our regular evenings dealing with family history and computers. Our speaker
will be Jon Nixey, whose sight has been affected since birth and who has
been completely blind since the age of 20. Jon has entitled his talk
'Researching in the darkness and silence - How blind and deaf-blind
genealogists use their computers'. It will feature the use of assistive
technology and its application to family history research. Assistive
technology enables visually impaired people to read text-based information
both on their computer and on the Internet.

Jon will address the three main ways a blind or deaf-blind person can access
information:

  a.. Screen reader - suitable for a person with significant or total sight
loss. A synthetic voice speaks the text aloud.
  b.. Screen Magnification - frequently used by those with impaired sight,
whereby the text to be read is made significantly larger.
  c.. Braille display - primarily used by the deaf-blind, this display turns
written text into electronic Braille.

He will then go on to demonstrate how impaired people use assistive
technology to access independently the wide range of transcribed BMD, census
and parish records that are vital to family history research.

We welcome anyone who would like to visit us to take this opportunity to
explore this important aspect of family history research and computers.
There is no charge for the evening and you don't have to be a member of the
Society. We meet at Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington OX5 1AB and Society
members will be on hand to help from 19:00. The talk starts at 19:30 and
will finish around 21:00.

There is ample free parking, and easy access to the meeting room. We will
endeavour to ensure that the talk has appropriate support for visually and
hearing impaired people. If you have other specific requirements, please
contact us, so that we can try our best to meet them.

If you'd like more information, don't hesitate to contact us at
help@ofhs.org.uk

And if you can't come - a report will be in our journal !

Jon's own page is at http://www.jpnixey.btinternet.co.uk/index.html

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